


Little Grubs and Overprotective Kids

by awtuscany



Series: Troll Adoption Agency [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Kidnapping, Loss of Powers, Murder, OOC?, POV Multiple, child endangerment, cute baby grubs, head injures
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-23
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-02-26 16:48:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 6,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2659229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awtuscany/pseuds/awtuscany
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You are Rose Lalonde and you work at a troll adoption agency.<br/>The birth of 24 new trolls seems to signal just another day at the agency. You couldn't be more wrong.</p><p>~~~~~<br/>You are Spades Slick and you have a plan to get rich.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

# Chapter One: Rose I

Your name is Rose Lalonde and you work at a No Kill Troll Adoption Center. The center was named Sgrub and was run by a very odd young man named Hussie who would dress up as a troll and had a serious obsession with horses. You thought this was a little ridiculous and often tried to psychoanalyze him but it never gets you very far. Your co-workers are also very strange, a blue eyed boy named John, a green eyed girl named Jade and a ironic boy with sunglasses named Dave. You and all your co-workers are eighteen and today is a very special day.

Today is the day that the troll eggs that your center’s mother grub laid will hatch. There is a large chance that the twenty four eggs she laid will give rise to some very rare blood classes. This makes you rather happy as you have always wanted to have a jade blooded troll. Your job at the center is to help your center's jade blood, Dolorosa, care for the mother grub and the newborn troll grubs. So you have always respected and valued the rare blood caste. You are extremely worried because the mother grub should produce more than just twenty four eggs.

A healthy mother grub with a good choice of genetic material could produce thousands of troll eggs. The center limited the amount of genetic materials so that the mother grub could only produce around 200 eggs.Which may seem like a lot but your center was the only one within a 20 mile radius with a mother grub. So your center provided the baby trolls for all the troll adoption centers in your area. You and Dolorosa were very sure the mother grub was reaching the end of her life span. She should lay a mother grub egg that will hatch and be fully mature by the time she dies. You are getting off topic.

You head down the stairs to the awaiting basement where the mother grub and Dolorosa are. You unlock the door that is off to the left of the stairs, inside Dolorosa is checking and double checking the eggs. One twitches, signalling it really is almost time for them to hatch.

“How long until they hatch,” you ask Dolorosa as you examine one of the 24 eggs that lay inside the heated container.

“Not much longer,” Dolorosa’s voice is soft, barely above a whisper. Even as she says it a different noise catches your attention. One of the eggs is hatching.

Both you and Dolorosa rush to the end of the container where the sound came from. Sure enough a small crack in the pale white egg is present. It grows larger and the egg splits in two.

The grub that has come out of the egg is a seadweller grub, its body a rare shade of fuchsia that marks it as a highblood. The tiny grub looks around, spotting you and Dolorosa. It hisses at the two of you. You immediately decide you do not like this grub.  

You spend nearly an hour in the basement watching the grubs hatch. At the end of the hatching you have counted and record the type and number of blood castes.

2 futshias, Feferi and Meenah.

2 violets, Cronos and Eridan.

2 purples, Kurloz and Gamzee.

2 indigos, Horuss and Equius.

2 Ceruleans, Aranea and Vriska.

2 Teals, Trezi and Latula.

2 Jades, Kanaya and Porrim.

2 Olives, Nepeta and Meulin.

2 Golds, Sollux and Mituna.

2 Bronze, Rufio and Tavros.

2 Burgundy, Damara and Aradia

2 Candy Red, Karkat and Kankri.

You are pleased at the outcome of the hatching two of every blood caste, save lime which is almost impossible to get anyway. You are quite happy with the fact there are two jade bloods. Dolorosa seems happy as well.

“I thank you for watching over the eggs with me. The grubs will most likely pupate in a few weeks,” Dolorosa informs you.

“Yes, I know,” you reply, “Then they will be ready for adoption. I hope every one of them gets a good home.”

That is true, you do want them all to get a good home, even Meenah who hissed at you as soon as she was born. You smile, giving the troll grubs one last look over you head back upstairs.


	2. Chapter 2

 

#  Chapter Two: Rose II

 

Your name is still Rose Lalonde and the three month old troll girl in front of you does not seem to want to keep her shirt on. This was nothing new, the little troll was old enough to be adopted but she never really seemed interested in any of the people who came in to look at her. She is a little teal blood that you and Dolorosa had named Tokrei and she is extremely stubborn. Sometimes you are afraid she won’t get adopted because of her stubbornness. You want all the little trolls to go to great homes. 

 

Tokrei runs past you, shirt off gray skin shinnying in the artificial light. You know that chasing after her will only tire you out and make it easier for her to escape into the front room. So you wait until she tires herself out. Or until Dave notices that she has her shirt off again. Which ever comes first. 

 

“Tokrei,” he says, calm and collected as he normally is. “I suggest you put your shirt back on, or would you rather we settle this with a strife?” 

 

Tokrei tilts her head and then giggles, “No, I’ll put my shirt back on Dave!” 

 

She runs to you and you help her with getting the white shirt on. She smiles at Dave who ruffles her hair. She giggles and then she runs off to play with her hatchmates. You look to Dave who gives you a small nod of greeting. You two are friends, cousins really, but you and he never tell anyone. Not because you two don’t love each other in that family way but because it’s easier for Dave that way. You two didn’t meet until you were 16 because of your parents never speaking. Dave was raised by his dad, who he called ‘Bro’ and you were raised by your mom. 

 

“The new trolls were going to hatch today, how did it go,” he asks. 

 

You smirk a bit, because you know he’s been wanting to adopt a teal blood troll for ‘ironic’ purposes. You however think it’s because he’s been lonely since he moved out of his apartment he shared with his dad.

 

“They all hatched to be healthy little grubs. There are even two teal bloods. They are going to pupate in a few weeks. Then they can be adopted. I’m sure that one of the two teals would like you.”

 

He had decided that he wanted a teal blood after how well he gets along with Tokrei, but Tokrie doesn’t want him to adopt her, she’d said so many times. She said she was waiting for her perfect human. 

 

“As if I’d want one of those little brats. They would be so much work, I don’t want a little troll to take care of.” He denies wanting a troll for the hundredth time that week. You know he really wants one though. He just can’t admit it in front of the other workers. That would ruin his cool kid persona he works so hard on maintaining. 

 

“Are you sure? I’m sure Dolorosa wouldn’t mind us going down to see them. Might as well start early to see if one of them likes you.” 

 

“Fine, I’ll go with you to see the grubs,” he says, still trying and failing at this point to hid how much he wants a troll. 

 

The two of you head back into the basement, Dolorosa is currently trying to keep Sollux and Eridan away from each other. You wonder what happened that she had to separate them. 

 

“What happened,” you ask, looking between Dolorosa, Sollux and Eridan. 

 

“Sollux rammed into Eridan and tried to wound him. If I hadn’t seen what was happening I’m afraid of what would have happened. However I think Eridan started it.” She states this all in a matter of fact way that almost makes you want to laugh. 

 

“Can I see the little teal bloods that Rose was talking about,” Dave asks.

 

Dolorosa smiles and nods, picking up the two sleeping teal bloods. 

 

“I’ve discovered something about these two. They are both blind. So be careful with them.” She carefully hands off the two teal bloods, Terezi first and then Latula. “This one is Terezi,” Dolorosa says as she hands her to Dave. “And this one is Latula.” 

 

Dave gulps, clearly a little overwhelmed by how small and vulnerable the grubs were.

 

“Are they always this tiny,” he asks.

 

“Always,” you reply, going over to the container of grubs and picking up Kanaya. She looks up at you and squeaks happily. Oh, yes you are going to adopt her once she pupates, you have made your decision. 

 

“I see that one has taken a shining to you,” you say to Dave as Terezi rubs her head on his shirt and squeaks. 

 

“I think she has… MAybe I’ll adopt her. For ironic purposes.”

 

“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” you reply smugly. 

 

Dolorosa takes back Latula but let’s him keep holding Terezi. Terezi seems to be very happy with Dave, making small squeaks and other grub noises. You find this to be very cute, You notice Kanaya has fallen asleep in your arms. You smile and carefully put her back into the containers. Dave has given Terezi back to Dolorosa and you know it’s time to head back up. 

 

“Goodbye again Dolorosa,” you say giving her a polite nod. 

 

After that Dave and you head back up to help with the troll adoptions. Once you are up there you notice John talking to a suspicious looking man, he’s tall wearing a hat that covers his slicked back hair. He has an eye patch that makes you wonder what the hell that guy is into. You really doubt that he would pass the mandatory background  check. You don’t want him here because you feel like he’s going to be a bad influence on the little ones. You head over to John and the unknown man. John is having a hard time handling him.

 

“Sir, I told you, you can't just take a troll. You have to fill out paperwork, pass a background check and pay a license fee.” John tells him nervously.

 

“I want a pair of trolls,” his voice is gruff, and it makes you really want him to leave. “Preferably a jade blood and a mutant.” 

 

“B-but sir.” 

 

You step in. “Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave now before we have to call security. My college has already made it clear that you can’t just have a troll. So leave, now.” 

 

He glares at you and then back down. 

 

“Fine, I’m leaving.” 

He leaves but you have a bad feeling this won’t be the last you see of him.    



	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look I remembered this Fanfiction existed...

#  Chapter Three: Slick I

Your name is Spades Slick and you had to deal with a flighty broad today. She made it clear she was not going allow him to get the trolls he wanted legally. Not that anything he did was legal anyway. You wanted those trolls, for one good reason. To get rich. You knew that Sgrub was the only troll adoption agency with their own mother grub within the twenty mile radius that you had scoped out. You wanted a mother grub if it was the last thing you did, mother grubs produce troll grubs, and trolls make great, and expensive pets.

 

 

The money was all you wanted, you could care less about what happens to the trolls you breed. Since you couldn’t get the trolls today, you would get them tonight, after closing. You had already made plans with your crew to take as many troll grubs as necessary as well as the mother grub. It didn’t matter what you had to do to the poor jade blooded troll that was no doubt there to look after the newborn grubs. 

 

It didn’t matter to you at all. Not one fucking bit. After all this is just business and all is fair in business. You are waiting at the other side of the street watching as the workers in the place go home. That flighty broad from earlier is the last to leave and is sure to lock up the place. Not that it really matters, you have an expert safe and lock cracker to get you into the building. 

 

Your phone rings, you blink surprised, and look at it. It is one of your second in command Diamond Droog. What the hell could he want?

 

“Droog,” you say voice dripping with impatience. 

 

“Slick, something’s come up. The Felt are making a move on our territory and there is no way we can pull off the heist tonight.”

 

You groan, damn them Felt and that damned Snowman. They were going to pay big for making you miss this chance to steal that mother grub. You grubble to yourself as you walk away from Sgrub. It occurs to you that you should call back Droog and ask him where the Felt are so you can take your anger out on them. 

You pull out our phone and shoot Droog a text asking for the location of the Felt. With one last glance over your shoulder as Sgrub fades into the distance your anger rises in your chest once more. Someone was going to die tonight, there was no question about that.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is mostly filler and I'm sorry it took so long to update. I get writers block so often. 
> 
> Also Torkie may get more character development because she may or may not get her own story int this series. Just saying.

Chapter Four: Rose

You are Rose, you never stopped being Rose so this intro is pointless. You have just come back to work, being the first one there, and want to go cheek on the newborn grubs. You make your way down to the basement, you are still worried for the mother grub. When you get down there you see the Dolorosa holding a spiky looking egg. You understand what it is almost immediately.   
“She laid the egg for the next mother grub other night,” Dolorosa tells you.   
“I see. How long do you think she has until…” You trail off, in truth you are quite attached to the mother grub who had been there as long as you had.   
“Three weeks at the most. She will not lay more eggs in that times. She’ll just cater to the Matriob until it hatches and she ultimately dies.”  
“I see…”   
You give a sad look to the poor mother grub, who is sitting next to the Matriob looking at you and the Dolorosa with curious eyes. You look away, you never dealt with death all that well. You were heartbroken when your cat died when you were little, and you knew this would be just as hard. The Dolorosa seems to sense your distress and lays a comforting hand on your shoulder.  
“Why don’t you go back upstairs? I can take care of the grubs and the mother grub until they pupate or the Matriob hatches.”  
You nod, turning to head back upstairs, for a second you pause looking to the Dolorosa. She smiles and gives a nod as if to say ‘I’ll be fine dear.’ You believe her.  
When you return to upstairs you are greeted by little Torkie running up to you, a book in hand.  
“Read to me,” she demands.   
You smile, because she loved hearing stories but was too young yet to learn how to read.  
“Sure, let’s see this book.”  
Torkie hands you the book and you look it over. ‘Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham’ one of the classic childrens books you have here for the little ones to look over, although you’ve replaced it twice already when Pisros, a troll hatched at the same time as Torkie, decided to try using it to make paper airplanes.   
“Okay Torkie, let’s go sit in the bean bag chairs and I’ll read this to you.”   
She smiles widely and follows you to the bean bag chairs, plopping down in dark green one, which has always been her favorite. You take a seat in the purple one next to it and begin to read the book. Torkie hangs on your every word, eyes wide with amusement and curiosity as you show her the colorful pictures that go along with the book. Half way through, despite trying to hang on to your every word, she falls asleep. You almost laugh at how adorable, even if she can be a handful, the little one is.   
Dave wonders over, raising an eyebrow at you and the sleeping Torkie.   
“Is there a problem, David,” you ask, shutting the book.   
“None at all. I figured I’d take the little sis to her bed since she fell asleep out here. Not the best place to be taking a snooze. Bean bag chairs are definitely not made for napping trolls.”   
He picks up Torkie who doesn’t even stir in her sleep as he does. With a thumbs up to you he head off further into the building.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: Slick II

You are Spades Slick, you never stopped being Spades Slick so you don’t understand why this introduction is necessary. You are once again standing outside Sgrub waiting for the last loyal employee to head home. They all make you sick. They have these big smiles as they work with the trolls and seem to treat the trolls as if they were human.

They aren’t human. They are useless pets that rich people go insane to get their hands on. So few people treat trolls as an intelligent species and you have never actually interacted with a troll, so you have no idea how intelligent they are or are not. You did get a few glimpses of trolls interacting with their caretakers when you were scouting the adopting centers and they all seemed like small children to you.

You hate small children. You shake the thought of these things from your mind as the last employee, this time that brat with the buck teeth locks up the place. He doesn't do a double check to see if the doors are all locked and secure like the flighty broad did. He heads home without thinking to make sure everything is secure. This makes things a lot easier for you in the long run. You pull out your phone and call Droog.

“What do you want Slick,” his voice comes through the phone, irritated and dismissive.

“It’s time Droog, get the boys together we are going in.”

It takes those three twenty minutes to show up. Lousy bastards seem to always take their time when it comes to getting places. At least all three of them showed up without you having to go track them down this time.

Droog is a tall man, calm and collect, who keeps multiple outfits with him in case his get ruined. Boxcar is a giant with all the strength to match, he specializes in cracking open safes. Deuce isn’t all there, he’s a tiny man who specializes in explosives. This is your little team of four and you run this city. Every club, hotel and casino, and illegal gambling rings are under your name. At least on the east side of the city. The west side of the city is controlled by the Felt. Those guys really get on your nerves. While you and the Felt haven’t started an all out war yet, you have been fighting for a long time. It is bad luck that Sgrub is located with the Felt’s territory, you and your team had to be in and out before the Felt got news of this little operation.

Even as you are thinking all of this Boxcar is breaking into Sgrub, Droog is giving orders, and you are standing there thinking. No alarm sounds as Boxcar breaks open the glass front door. The buck toothed kid must have forgotten to set the alarms.

Droog calls to you, “Slick we are going in, are you coming?”

You snap out of your thoughts and call, “Yeah, I’m right behind you.”

You follow in behind Deuce who is looking around fearful of all that’s happening. You roll your eyes and tell Droog, “They keep the newly hatched grubs in the basement. Turn left here.”

The four of you get to the basement without any troubles, and the door is unlocked. You head down first, half way down you can see the jade blood in charge of the mother grub asleep on a pile. All the newly hatched grubs and the mother grub are fast asleep, dreaming away. You take one wrong step on the stairs and the jade blood is awake. She glows in the slightly lit basement, lighting up the area better.

She hisses, “Who are you?! Leave at once!”

She is fast, bounding up the stairs at you fangs and claws bared to rip you open. You manage to dodge squeezing up against the wall, and Deuce hits her with his whip. She falls down the stairs, her head hitting the floor with a crack. Her glow fades a little and blood pools around her head. She’ll probably be dead in a few minutes.

You and the boys grab all of the grubs, stuffing them into bags, and then advance on the sleeping mother grub. There is some kind of weird egg like thing but you ignore it and take the mother grub throwing her into a bad as well. The grubs squeak pathetically trying to rip the cloth bags with their underdeveloped horns and fangs. IF they were just a week older they might have had a chance to escape.

You and the boys leave, stepping over the body of the jade blood. You walk out like you own the place with eleven squeaking grubs and a quiet mother grub. Somewhere, alone in the dark of the basement, one little yellow grub lays, having fallen from the bag as you were trying to put it in in the dim light. It sparks weakly with its psionics and crawls over to the jade blood. It crawls on top of her, and squeaks horribly as its psionics begin to fail.


	6. Chapter 6

# Chapter Six: Jade I

  
  


You are Jade Harley and it is way too late at night for you to be heading back to work because your idiot brother forgot to set the security alarm. How in the world did he forget to do that? That’s like one of the simplest things anyone at the agency has to do. Flip a small switch on the little white box and boom the shelter and all the trolls are protected. You are still slightly asleep when you pull into the parking lot and turn off the car. You yawn taking out the keys to the front door when you notice the glass is broken. Panic sets in and you are immediately fully awake running into the shelter with wild abandon.

Your first thought is to check on the grubs Rose has been telling you so much about. You head towards the basement door, and notice it is open. No that is very wrong, the door is always closed in case a stray wriggler decides to try and get down there. You hit the light switch that is on the wall behind the basement door, and head down.

The sight is horrible. The Dolorosa is laying in a pool of her own blood with a little gold blooded grub on her chest. The other grubs are nowhere to be seen and the mother grub is missing. You grab your cellphone out of your pocket and call 911.

While you try and explain the situation you check for a pulse on the Dolorosa, she has none. While you were checking her pulse you noticed the little gold blood has a head injury. His or her, you don't know it’s gender right now, is bleeding as well. You check for a pulse on the grub and thank god it has one. You are relaying all this information to the 911 operator who assures you she’s sending police and paramedics and wants to know if you need her to stay on the phone with you. You assure her you will be fine and that you need to inform your co-workers and boss about the issue. She advises against hanging up but you do so anyway.

With one hand you are flicking through your contacts to find Rose and with the other you are ripping a piece of cloth off the Dolorosa’s shit. You find Rose’s contact rather quickly and dial it putting the phone on speaker as you tear the cloth into small bandages for the grub. The phone rings three times and you are mid bandage when Rose picks up the phone.

“Jade Harley, you do realize that it is 2 am and a normal person would be in bed right now, correct?”

“Rose! It’s horrible! John forgot to turn on the alarm when he locked up, and someone broke into the shelter! They took the newborn grubs! All but one of them! But this little guy has a head injury and isn’t waking up! I check it for a pulse and it has one but I’m scared.”

“Have you asked the Dolorosa for assistance,” Rose sounds more awake, and worried. You can hear her getting out of bed and walking towards her door.

“I...She… When I came in I found her in a pool of her own blood at the bottom of the stairs… She doesn’t have a pulse…”

Rose is silent on the other side of the phone and sierens upstairs alert you that the police and paramedics have arrived. They rush downstairs to your side, and convince you to give them the little gold blooded grub. They also carefully take the Dolorosa onto a stretcher. They lead you out of the basement, and Rose still hasn't said anything on the other line. Suddenly a dial tone tells you she has hung up. The paramedics are taking you into one of the ambulances, treating you for shock. The police ask to get your fingerprints and shoes, which you only now notice are covered in jade blood. They are questioning you taking your statement when Rose pulls into the parking lot.

“Miss, you can’t come in here,” one officers tries to tell her.

“I work here! Those grubs are my responsibility I have to know which one is hurt,:” “ she yells.

An officer asks you if this is true and you nod. They don’t let her through but one of the cops agrees to take her to the specialized troll hospital where the grub was taken. You are still in a daze and one of the paramedics asks if you can drive yourself home. You shake your head, there’s no way you would be okay behind the wheel of a car. A police officer offers to drive you home, but you say you’d rather go see the grub with Rose.

The rest of the night is a blur, sitting by Rose’s side near one of those things babies are put in when they are really sick. You don’t remember falling asleep but the next thing you know a nurse is waking you and Rose up.

“How is the grub,” you ask.

“His name is Mituna,” Rose informs you, eyes not leaving Mituna.

“Mituna is recovering,” the nurse says, “Since you two are pretty much his caretakers I can tell you everything if you want to know.”

Rose nods, and you nod too.

“He suffered some brain damage at some point last night. Doctors figure he was either thrown or dropped. He’s still pretty touch and go but the doctor’s think he will make it. He loss his psionics. There’s no way he’ll be getting those back, but with proper care he can still live a long and even full life. You are lucky that Miss Harley found him when she did. Any longer and we might not have been able to save him”

Rose sighs with relief. Mituna would make it. You can’t help but smile. You saved this grub’s life.

“What about the Dolorosa?” Rose asks.

The nurse's smile fades. “She didn’t make it. Despite her rainbow drinker abilities, she had lost too much blood and her neck was broken from the fall. I’m sorry for your loss.”

Rose sits there silently and you ask the nurse to leave. Without a word you wrap your arm around her, this was going to be a hard week.


	7. Chapter Seven

# Chapter Seven: Jade II

You are still Jade Harley and you are pissed because of the officer in front of you. The officer, who can't be more than 25 and is probably fresh out of the academy, is informing you and Rose that the case will be handled as an animal cruelty and kidnapping case. You know what than means, it means your case will get little to no attention and those eleven grubs will no doubt end up dead or sold to people who will abuse them.

You hate how trolls are treated, trolls are very intelligent creatures, probably more intelligent than humans, yet are treated as animals because of their sometimes violent tempers. A three month old troll child can walk, talk and run, something a human child could not do until they were at least two. Trolls aren’t pets, they are long term family members, the same as adopting a human child. It is so wrong that the police won’t even think about helping the eleven little grubs lost somewhere in this cruel world.

“How can you say that?” You ask the officer with a disgusted face. “How can you say that trolls are just animals and the case will be treated as just that?! The Dolorosa was our friend! She was intelligent and kind and loving. Those grubs are the same as babies! Without the proper care they will die! Yet, the police! Who are supposed to protect the public, are going to let them be abused and sold illegally because they aren’t considered people?! Trolls are intelligent, loving and amazing people! Yet the entire police department is going to put almost no effort into finding eleven lost BABIES!”

The officer looks afraid of you and is going for his taser, but you aren’t going to back down. You will gladly go to jail in order to make your point. However it seems that Rose is not as willing to let you go to jail today because she steps in between you and the officer.

“Thank you for your help officer. My co-worker and I will be going now.”

Rose grabs your arm and drags you away from the officer and farther into her home, she looks to make sure the officer has let himself out before releasing your arm.

“Why the hell did you do that,” you demand.

“Yelling at the officer wasn’t going to accomplish anything… The police don’t care what happen to trolls, if we want justice we are going to have to get it ourselves. We will need to pour over the other copies of the security footage, I know it wasn’t running last night because of John’s screw up but we still have weeks of footage to go through and get a suspect. We can track down every lead, isn’t Jane still into detective work?”

“Yes,” you tell Rose.

“Good, we already know the police are going to take forever processing the crime scene so we will do it first. We are going to need help though. If you call Jane, Jake and John, I will call Roxy and Dave. I’m sure Dave won’t mind calling Dirk for us.”

“You are saying to break into a police crime scene, with a group of eight under experienced teens to early twenties, then go up against the kidnappers who have already shown they are not above murder?”

“Yes.”

“Then I hope that Jade’s old detective kit still works!”

You pull out your phone and shoot a text to Jane asking her for help, and then send a text to Jake asking for his help as well. They send replies rather quickly, Jake says that it sounds like one big adventure and he’d love to go. Jane says that she’d love to help save the lives of the little grubs and will be coming to Rose’s house as soon as she digs the old detective kit out of the attic.John says he wants to help because this is all his fault and he never wants to see anything bad happen to innocent grubs. You smile widely.

“Rose! I got them in on it! How is it going on your end?”

“Roxy was asleep when I called her but she agreed, though I am not sure she quite know what I was saying. Dave was really torn up about the missing grubs, of course he didn’t say that but I could tell. He says he’ll be coming over to help as soon as he possibly can. He also said he’d get Dirk here even if he had to drag him kicking and screaming from his house.”

“That’s amazing! When was the last time we all teamed up on something like this?”

“Far too long, but I think this is our most important one yet.”

“Then let operation ‘SAVE THE GRUBS’ begin.”


	8. Chapter Eight

# Chapter Eight: Slick III

You are Spades Slick, you never stopped being Spades Slick, and these introductions are starting to get redundant. You are currently trying to deal with the eleven grubs you nabbed from that adoption agency. The grubs are screaming and have been doing so since they woke up this morning. The Mother Grub has yet to move from the spot in the corner you placed her in, and she seems to be very disinterested. At some point in the chaos of the grubs screaming, you managed to figure out that they were hungry and sent Droogs to get some raw meat for the little fucker. He has yet to return.

One of the little fucks, his blood is bright fucking red, you are sure he’s going to fetch a handsome price because Candy Red bloods are rare as fuck, has decided that your shoulder is his perch and is clinging to it with his little grub legs. He screeches angrily in your ear every few seconds to make sure you didn’t forget about him. This is fucking ridiculous.

You try to remove the little fuck from your shoulder but he has a death grip on it. In the end you have to tear the jacket of your suit to get him off. That is fucking great now you have to go get a new suit on.

“Thanks a lot you little fuck,” you tell him as he scuttles to try and get back up onto your shoulder. “Oh hell no. I am not letting you get back up here.”

You pick him up and he bites your hand like the little asswipe he is. You glare at him and he glares back with unblinking red eyes. The two of you stay that way for some time before you drop in onto a cushion and walk away. He screeches and hurries after you like a toddler looking for it’s mother as it crawls along the floor Luckily for you one of the little purple grubs decides now is the best time to try and cuddle with the clingy red grub. You lose him as he tries to fight to get away from the purple grub.

You head into a quieter part of the house to call Droogs, he should have been back with that raw meat by now and you swear if you have to have one more grub bite you will kill them all. Droogs picks up on the second ring.

“Yes,” his voice is so calm, like he hasn’t been out ‘buying meat’  for the last hour and a half.

“Where the hell have you been,” you demand.

“I’m on my way back now, apparently not many butchers will sell to Crew members any more. Something about the Felt taking over more than we are.”

“That’s just what I need right now! A turf war with the Felt! Not like we have eleven hungry grubs who have literally been taking bites out of me this time.”

“I will be back at the place in ten minutes. Just put on some kid show or something. I heard that grubs like to watch bright moving shit.”

You hang up on him before he can say anything else that may make you want to kill him. That stupid fucking red blooded grub is back, he must have found a way to get away from the purple blooded grub when you were on the phone. You scoop him up and carry him back to the other grubs. Without a second thought you turn on the TV and put on some stupid ass kids’ show. The grubs are immediately interested and stop the screeching. You feel like you have just been blessed.

As promised Droogs walks in only ten minutes later, you and the grubs are watching the stupid show, something about good morials and being friendly that makes you want to punch something. Droop throws you a pack of some thinly sliced beef and smirks as if to say, ‘you are getting along so well with the grubs why don’t you feed them.’ You are starting to regret making this plan.


	9. John I

#  Chapter Nine: John

  
  


You are now John Egbert, and you are seriously regretting forgetting to put the alarm on the other night, and inexplicably allowing the grubs to be kidnapped, the Dolorosa killed, and Mituna to be injured, this has not been your week. You are in the car with Jake on your way to Rose’s house to hear what is probably a crazy plan to try and fix your mistake. You wish you had just set the stupid alarm, but there’s nothing you can do to change the past, meaning you’re going to have to work extra hard in the present to make sure no one else suffers because of your mistake. 

“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Jake says, pulling into Rose’s driveway. “It could have happened to anyone.”

“No one else would have forgotten to set the alarm, Jake. If anyone else had been locking up that night none of this would have happened.”

“Mistakes happen all the time.” 

“Yeah, but my mistake got people hurt.”

“Are you going to try to fix your mistake and help those who you hurt?”

“Yes.”

“Then don’t beat yourself up, you’re doing everything you can to fix it.”

You shrug and exit the car, walking slowly up to Rose’s door, hesitating before knocking. Jake joins you just as Jade opens the door, she’s got a cup of coffee, and what looks like a CD. She gives what seems to be a forgiving smile at you and lets you and Jake into the house. Everyone is there already, surprisingly despite the seriousness of the reason they are all together everyone seems rather happy. This could be because it’s been some time since they have all been under the same roof. Rose is in front of the TV setting up something, and you hesitantly take a seat next to Dave who nods in greeting. 

“I’m glad you could join us,” Rose says, just barely acknowledging you. “John, you and Jake are going to review the security tapes leading up to the kidnapping. Dave and I are going to go interview everyone who adopted a troll in the days to see if they saw anyone suspicious. Jade and Jane are going back to the adoption agency to use Jade’s detective kit to hunt for clues. Dirk and Roxy, you two are going to canvas butcher shops, whoever took the trolls are going to need lots of raw meat to feed them. Ask about suspicious characters ordering unusually large amounts of uncooked meat.”

You aren’t surprised that you were given the least challenging job out of everyone, and poor Jake was probably only given this job because you need a babysitter to make sure you don’t fuck this simple shit up. 

“We’ll meet back up here at 11 pm and review any evidence we manage to come up with,” Jade says, handing the CD you saw her with earlier to Jake. You assume that the CD is the security footage, and you aren’t surprised that you weren’t given it. With the luck you’ve had lately you wouldn’t trust yourself with the very important CD.

“Be careful,” you say to Jade. 

“We will be,” Jade assures you but you aren’t sure that you deserve to even be trusted enough to be brought into this very important investigation and hopefully rescue mission. Slowly everyone leaves to get started on their assigned missions and soon it’s just you and Jake. Jake looks to you and says, “Get the coffee started mate, it’s going to be a long day.” Before putting the CD into the CD player Rose had set up.


End file.
